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The Upasana Family
Fashion is a passion, and clothing is a basic need. In Auroville, some
twenty clothing workshops and units try to combine these two aspects.
We spoke with Uma, founder of the design studio Upasana, which has been
in the game since 1997.
The life before
 Uma comes from Delhi, were
she saw at the end of 1995 some Auromode products at an exhibition. At
the time she had finished her studies at NIFT (National Institute of
Fashion Technology) and was working for an export company. She had no
idea what Auroville was, though she had heard about the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram in Pondicherry, having visited the Ashram branch in Delhi. She
had also read some small books on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Uma
liked the general outline and aesthetics of the clothing displays at the
exhibition very much. Prema, who runs the clothing unit Auromode,
noticed her interest, and invited her to come to Auroville for a design
project. A holiday trip in the subsequent year led Uma to south India.
A tremendous amount of opening
"I just landed up in Auroville and never went back! I didn't know
what I was looking for until I came to Auroville, and knew it existed: a
spiritual place to inwardly grow, and outwardly too. The sheer balance
of the two is a unique feature of Auroville. In other spiritual places
such as 'ashrams' you have to drop everything, and you have no
opportunity to work professionally, while here there is a tremendous
amount of opening," Uma recalls.
History
After a short return to Delhi to settle her affairs there, Uma then
worked for 1½ years as a designer for Auromode in Auroville.
"While dealing with clothes, I often heard negative remarks about
quality, cheapness and bad design, especially pertaining to Indian
clothing. I guess that's one of the main reasons why I decided to find a
way to express India through its textiles, and, being an Indian, I felt
I could do it."
Having made up her mind, Uma left Auromode and went with a begging bowl
to all the existing Auroville units in the hope of getting some place
from where to start her own workshop, and where she would be able to
follow her own philosophy. She named her undertaking 'Upasana', a
Sanskrit word for the way or the path through which one loves and serves
the Divine. The unit first took shape under the umbrella of Colours of
Nature, an Auroville dyeing unit. After one year of good collaboration,
the Upasana workshop was ready to shift to the Bliss settlement in the
centre of Auroville, where Uma still lives.
Without water and electricity
"It was a great experience to run a unit where there was no water
or electricity! It took one day to finish a dress, but two days to get
it ironed in a village some kilometres away. It was not easy in the
beginning, in a little hut with no infrastructure whatsoever. All the
water we had came from above: the monsoon drowned everything. We cried,
literally!" laughs Uma.
"Finally, we got a new building in Auroville's Industrial Zone, as
blessing from Mother. Now we are able to appreciate even more what we
have, because we have gone through hardship before it."
The family
 Still, Uma would
not consider the new building as a milestone in the history of Upasana.
She appreciates much more that Upasana is a place where people from all
over can come and explore clothing possibilities of their own, and
research the different dimensions of clothing. Upasana has 6 trainees, a
nice mixture of Auroville kids, grown-ups, guests and students; another
4 Aurovilians and Newcomers work there full time, plus 25 employees whom
Uma considers more as family members than workers. Some have come from
the north to train the people here. "In the beginning it was
difficult, with no skilled manpower plus the language problem on top of
that. Now it is better. I feel very fortunate to work in harmony with
people from so many different backgrounds," she says.
Creativity workshop
During inauguration of the design studio in '99, thirteen Aurovilians
and guests with a passion for clothing had been invited to explore the
textiles, to discuss and get inspired, to go into visualisation. All
participants created designs and patterns, and then went home in their
own beautiful creations. Since then, Uma has been constantly asked when
the next workshop will take place.
Bringing Indian textiles to Auroville
While deciding to highlight India's best textiles only, Upasana confined
itself to working with only the traditional materials of India.
Initially, this was quite a challenge for Uma, as she was originally
trained in western clothing for a mainly international market.
"But as time passed I began to feel like a fish in the water and
was amazed to see the possibilities our country has to offer. Each State
has its own individuality, its own characteristic in textile, which deep
down is one with India's vast reservoir of wisdom and knowledge. This
research, and understanding, inwardly opened a new door for me. I could
no longer treat a piece of cloth as just another piece of material. It
became much more than that. I could sink into meditation just by
concentrating on it."
Designing clothing became something sacred, pure and beautiful. This is
Uma's India, where beauty doesn't get confined to physical boundaries,
but goes far beyond.
Philosophy
"Auroville has taught me that it is not important what you do, but
how you do it, with what kind of attitude and spirit. Generally
speaking, the world of fashion is a corrupted world, but Auroville will
give it another dimension. When this dimension will manifest, I don't
know", says Uma, and, asked for future plans, she finishes the
interview with a smiling "I leave it to Mother..!"
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